Reader Input: California must regulate pit bulls

The Journal’s March 15 editorial commenting on the recent pit bull attack on a horse in the Bel Air shopping center raised some cogent issues but ignored the most critical ones (“Our View: Responsible pet ownership needed always”).
When the pit bull kill count began its dangerous rise years ago, animal rights extremists within the American Kennel Club persuaded California legislators to enact legislation that prohibits cities and counties from regulating the pit bull through any “breed specific” ordinances, a euphemism for protecting the pit bull from the consequences of its actions.
Recently released 2012 national statistics on canine murders of human beings revealed that 61 percent of the 38 murders were committed by pit bulls, and half of those victims were children. The Rottweiler was a distant second with 8 percent of the murders, and about nine mixed breeds shared the rest of the carnage. California led the nation for pit bull murders of humans.
Changing state law to allow cities and counties to regulate the pit bull is the only solution. More than 600 U.S. cities, counties and states have cracked down on this killer breed. Just as there is a “criminal element” in the human world that commits a disproportionate percentage of our serious crime, so, too, is there a canine career criminal equivalent, the pit bull.
We shouldn’t wait for the pit bull kill count to get any worse before taking any serious action to change the law.
FRANK FORD, Auburn